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FEAR, celebrating their 40th anniversary with a tour that is, if not the original lineup, at least partially what is regarded as the ‘classic lineup,’ made a stop in New York City on September 21st, 2018. One of those bands that used to be able to blast through seventeen songs in fifty-minutes proved that, yes, forty years later, they should still blast through
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Tompkins Square Park, located in the East Village in Manhattan, has long been a sight the locals associate with politics and activism. There were anti-war protests there in the sixties, and in the eighties it became a de facto homeless camp and was ripe with drug problems. In 1988, the cops came in and tried to oust the homeless that were living there. This resulted in a now fairly infamous riot, clips of which did wind up on newscasts around the New York City area. When it was all said and done, between the evening of August 6th and the morning of August 7th, thirty-eight people – homeless and random bystanders alike – were injured in altercations with the NYPD and no police
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On June 16th we went to the Brooklyn Bazaar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to see The Street Dogs play with The New Darkbuster opening. While I was there, I drank a lot of beer and when I drink a lot of beer, I need to go to the bathroom – and so I did. Thank God! Because had I not I’d have never found out that a last minute Dayglo Abortions
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The Damned (with support from California’s The Bellrays) took the stage last night in Brooklyn at the Warsaw concert theater in front of a sold out crowd. The date that had to be rescheduled after guitarist Captain Sensible tumbled off the stage and did some damage to his ribs towards the end of the Toronto show earlier on the tour. While the good Captain was put away in the hospital for a spell after the incident, you’d have never known it last night. He played with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half
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Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem closed off their De Mysteries Dom Sathans Alive tour, in which they played their seminal debut full length album live from start to finish on February 19th in New York City at the Gramercy Theater to a capacity crowd (well technically the finish was February 20th at St. Vitus, a show that was added at the last minute and which sold out incredibly quickly).

The night opened with support from local black metal act Black Anvil, whose latest
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The second to last night of the One Foot In The Grave tour stopped in Manhattan last night at the Gramercy Theater for a sold out show. Night Demon were up first, but ‘the man’ would let me off work in time to check out there set, which was disappointing because their album, Curse Of The Damned, is really good and by all accounts, so is their live show.

Ghoul, touring in support of their latest album Dungeon Bastards (reviewed here!) went on around 8:15pm or so and blasted through a ridiculously fun set of thrash/splatter punk mayhem. These guys play their entire set with sacks over their heads and don’t break character, trash talking the crowd and bringing some pretty great Gwar-inspired props and characters out on stage to get the audience involved.

Yesterday a whole bunch of people got together at Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan’s Lower East Side for a good cause. To quote from the page set up for this event:

“As many of you know, Gary Miller (aka Dr. Know or Doc), guitarist of the Legendary Washington DC punk band Bad Brains, suffered cardiac arrest in early November last year. His condition quickly progressed to multiple organ failure, and he was on life support for almost 2 weeks. At the time, his doctors gave him a 5% chance of survival. But by the power of PMA, LOVE and
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Venom Inc., are Venom. At least in a sense. Tony ‘Abaddon’ Bray and Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn may not plays drums and guitars with Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant anymore, but it almost doesn’t matter because these days, they’ve got Tony ‘The Demolition Man’ Dolan on vocals and bass. While Dolan’s work filling in for Venom (not Venom Inc.) in the late eighties and early nineties isn’t as well known as the earlier stuff (thanks in no small part to the fact that most of it has been out of print for years), the guy knows the material and he fits in perfectly.

And so we have Venom Inc., and the trio is now embarking on their second US tour in a year which kicked off earlier this week with two shows at St. Vitus in Brooklyn, NY. We were lucky
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This year, Thor’s first album, Keep The Dogs Away, turned forty. And what better way to commemorate that momentous occasion than by putting on the Thor show to end all Thor shows? That was clearly what Jon Mikl Thor and Rich Fabio had in mind when they set out to create Thor: A Rock Odyssey, a titanic three set affair that went down in Manhattan this past weekend at the Highline Ballroom.

I was lucky enough to be invited early, to watch the load in and the sound check and to get to know some of the performers that would be on stage that night. I arrived at 2pm, guitar player Brian Kozenek (of The Epoxies) was there but outside of that, the kind of traffic snarls that are typical around New York City caused a bit of a delay. But soon enough, a crew made up of keyboard player Christopher Totaro, bass man Scott Jackson, lead guitar players Paul LaPlaca and Vick LeCar and then Mr. Fabio and Thor himself made their presence known.

As the stage started shaping up, it became obvious that this was going to be a pretty big deal. Not only was the band clearly pumped up, but there was the whole visual side of the show
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Brooklyn’s St. Vitus played host, last night, to a triple threat of metal from across the spectrum in one of this week’s shows honoring the venue’s fifth year in business. First up were the burrough’s native sons, Polygamist. George Souleidis, one of the bar’s owners, fronts this three piece and they opened the night with a solid set of sludgy, stoner metal with Souleidis expressing some pretty sincere gratitude to everyone in attendance for supporting the bar in the first place. It was a fitting way to kick off the night and on top of that, these guys put on a pretty solid show.

Last night marked the final stop on Cradle Of Filth’s latest North American tour. Taking place in Manhattan at Webster Hall, support was provided by Ne Obliviscaras and Butcher Babies.

The opening slot on this tour saw Ne Obliviscaras, a six piece death metal band hailing from Melbourne, Australia, touring North American for the first time and as their set drew to a close you could clearly see from the smiles on their faces that they were impressed with the reception they received. While I missed the first half (which, in hindsight, was a mistake), the portion that I did catch showed a very creative band clearly determined to do something different in their chosen genre. The playing is very tight and at times insanely technical, which contrasts nicely with the growled vocals of front man
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This article is long, and maybe a little self-indulgent, but bear with me. Or skip straight to the pictures and the video. It’s your call. But I’m going to tell this story and I’m going to tell it right and to tell it right, a little bit of background information is needed.

When I was a kid growing up in the wilds of Southwestern Ontario and our family’s cable package started carrying Muchmusic (the Canadian MTV for those who don’t know), one of the first music videos I remember ever seeing was for a song called Keep The Dogs Away. In the video, an oiled up muscle man calling himself Thor strutted about on stage, flailing his arms all over the place clad in leather and studs but not before he was pulled down an alleyway by a pack of Dobermans. This video was nuts, and
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King Diamond, currently playing the classic Abigail album in full on this 2015 tour, played the third and final night of run of shows at the Playstation Theater in Times Square last night to a sold out crowd.

Exodus, now reunited with vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza, opened up the night with a ridiculously tight set and they did a great job of working the crowd up for the main event. Souza sounded great and had a lot of energy, as did the rest of the band. Kragen Lum (filling in for Gary Holt) and Lee Altus killed on guitar with the rhythm section of Jack Gibson on bass and Tom Hunting on drums holding everything down perfectly.

January 8, 1978 seems like a hell of a long time ago, but I truly can remember events just like it was yesterday. Recently I discovered a YouTube clip and it brought back a flood of those memories, from a period in my life that I thought was all but lost to time. The video featured the Sex Pistols playing the song, New York, from their infamous appearance at Randy’s Rodeo in San Antonio, Texas, the third stop on their brief, but legendary, tour of hostile southern U.S. venues. But even better, at the end it tacked on footage of the notorious incident where Sid Vicious smashes his bass guitar over some hellraiser’s head. Check out the end of the video – they interview the guy who was on the receiving end of Sid’s guitar. It was the type of spontaneous event that left a lasting impression. My life actually changed in so many ways that day, and it altered the course of my remaining time in
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You know you’re in for a special night when, shortly after walking through the door of a venue, you’re smashed into by a burley mosh pit enthusiast and knocked into the bar. But when minutes later you see a guy in a plastic Viking helmet skanking alongside a bearded albino in a big ol’ circle pit, you have to wonder if you’ve been transplanted to some
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Last night, UK street punk legends Cock Sparrer played their first New York City show in fifteen years at The Warsaw in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to a sold out capacity crowd. To say that the band was welcomed with open arms would be an understatement but before they took the stage, there were the two opening acts.

First up were 45 Adapters, a local Brooklyn band made up of “five friends who dress well and drink heavily.” They play a pretty straight forward brand of street punk/oi! music with some reggae and ska influences worked into the mix and they do it really damn well. They wear their influences on their sleeves but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They played catchy sing-along style punk with a load of energy and they did a very fine job of warming everyone up for the main event. These guys are definitely worth checking out, can’t wait to see them again.

The GWAR ETERNAL tour, the band’s first without legendary late front man Oderus Urungus, started out a few weeks ago and last night it came to Manhattan, Irving Plaza to be precise. The evening was kicked off right with an all too short set from Austin Texas’ American Sharks, a killer three piece that play fast and tight and who ripped through most of their debut album in what seemed like no time at all. Make a point of seeing these guys if they come to your town either on their own or supporting a bigger act, because they definitely do not disappoint and were one hundred percent worth getting to the show early and having to entertain yourself with $8 PBR’s for a while before they set up. And when they finish? Go say hi and get a hug from the singer, he’s a super friendly guy.